bamboo straw – Shades of Green

Plastic Free July is just around the corner. It is basically as it sounds – a global campaign that encourages us to reduce our plastic consumption during the month of July. It is an opportunity to reassess what we bring into our homes and who we give our money to. Consumer power, y’all! It’s a real thing!

But where to begin? Never fear, for I, Tamara, am here with a random assortment of quick and easy tricks and tips that I use in my daily life. So have a browse and pick one or two of your favourites to try on your low-waste, plastic-free journey. Remember, we need lots of people making small positive changes. Changing up just one thing in your daily life makes a difference. It’s all about progress not perfection.

Let me mention, there are no sponsors or affiliate links in my recommendations – just companies and brands that I use personally. As always, do your research and ensure the companies you give your money to are the ones that share your values and priorities, which may be different from mine.

Sustenance

Whenever you venture outside, carry a reusable bag with you. I love my bag-in-a-bags and like a girl scout, I am always prepared!
Locate and use your local greengrocers. I shop at Portsmouth Fruit and Flower on Milton Market and the majority of their fresh produce is plastic-free, they also provide paper bags instead of plastic and since the pandemic, they also do home delivery!
Try a fruit and veg box. My favourites are Wayside Organics and Riverford.
Refill your pantry staples. We are so lucky in Portsmouth to have the Package Free Larder, Herbies and Wild Thyme Wholefoods who all offer refills on food staples like rice, pasta, cocoa, as well as beauty and cleaning products like hand sanitizer and liquid shampoo.
Reuse glass containers – they are perfect for refills as I mentioned above and they definitely can have a cool Instagramy vibe, if that’s your jam.
Buy multi-pack cans of fizzy pop instead of plastic bottles, ideally in cardboard packaging rather than being wrapped in plastic. Or try cordial in a glass bottle to pimp up your water, The same goes for beers and other multipack drinks – avoid the 6-pack plastic rings. The turtles will thank you. And perhaps try buying your booze from a local independent like The Beer Musketeer, the Portsmouth Distillery and the Southsea Deli.

Photo Credit: *The Gender Spectrum Collection*

Social

Buy refiills of hand sanitizer. I get my hand santizer, which is made by The Portsmouth Distillery, at Herbies. Supporting local business and all that jazz.
Get yourself reusable and washable face masks. Or if you are handy, why not make your own. I have multiple masks purchased from local black business Sistah Mandy and a few more which were a Which? Best Buy.
Make your own hot beverages at home to take out, in an insulated reusable cup/ bottle. I love love LOVE my Chilly’s bottle. #notsponsored
Say no to straws when ordering drinks out and carry you own reusable straws. They come in different materials like stainless steel, bamboo and silicone. And you also get a cute teeny weeny straw cleaner which is just a delight in the horror that is doing the dishes.

Lookin’ Goood

Do you or someone you know have long hair? Do they use hair ties to contain their bounteous locks? Get some plastic-free hair ties made from cotton and natural rubber. It may be a small thing (literally) but worth it for the obscure green kudos points!
Read the labels on your clothes and aim for sustainable, plastic free brands and second hand. Two brands I trust are Rapanui, based across the water on Isle of Wight, and People Tree.
Naked toilet paper. No plastic, no packaging. For a deep dive into my toilet paper adventures, check out my post here and Emma’s post here on reuseable family cloths – a toilet paper alternative.
Try low-waste bathroom products like solid soaps (my go-to is Faith in Nature naked soaps from Wild Thyme ), refill products like shower gel, shampoo etc, and deodorant creams in tins or glass jars.

Homey Vibes

Next time you are wrapping a gift, try paper sticky tape. Plastic sticky tape, who dat?
Use washable reusable cleaning cloths instead of disposable wipes.
Refill cleaning products instead of buying new products. Wild Thyme, Herbies and the Package Free Larder all offer refills.
Use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. They make the dining experience super fancy!
If you have a pet in your life, try sourcing pet food in cans. Tins and cans have a higher recycling value while low-grade plastic is extremely low-value and that is assuming recycling facilities for mixed plastics even exist in your local area.

Photo by **Artem Podrez** from **Pexels**

Consumer Tips $$

Repair items whenever possible. Don’t know how? Vist to Pompey’s Repair Cafe which has recently reopened after a year and more of covid-19 lock downs.
Limit online purchases wherever possible and try to support sustainable, local online brands. Request no plastic packaging for online orders and actively support local traders like Pigeon Books and online shops like Plastic Freedom that aim for low-waste packaging.

Let me know in the Comments section below what you’ll be doing this Plastic Free July. Be it small or be it big, it be something…

Written by Tamara, a Green Hairy Feminist

You may not know this dear reader, but Shades of Green shares its name (quite by accident) with a Walt Disney World golf resort. In fact, every time I (Emma) Google our blog that is what comes up. Why am I telling you that? Because WDW is the subject of today’s blog.

There’s no getting around it, taking a holiday in a place that is several thousand miles away and is a major tourist trap is hardly the greenest thing that I could do, but what can I say? I love Disney – I even worked there for a time – and I’m not going to stop going. So, last month I went.

However, I did want to make my trip as green as possible and this is what I did to make that happen.

Getting there

The only practical way to get to the USA is via plane, so I offset my flight’s carbon footprint. As it turns out, flying direct and in the economy cabin is better for the world than having a change or flying in premium/business/first class, which is good because I flew there direct and economy class. (Although, I did have a change on the flight back, which I didn’t think about until I’d booked it.)

Packing List

Suitcase with period pants, reusable pads, cloth napkin, lunchbox, spork, and kayak bag — Missing: One water bottle

I was never going to be able to take just hand luggage with me to the USA for three weeks, so I took a suitcase. Although I’ll admit it could have been a bit lighter because I over packed on cardigans for the evenings – two would have been enough – and I could have washed some clothes (underwear, socks) in the shower. (I am considering just taking a carry on next time because of this.) However, these are the things that I packed to make my trip greener:

Reusable water bottle: WDW is filled with water fountains, meaning that you never have to buy a plastic water bottle or ask for a cup of ice water. Plus the Chillys bottle (recommended by Tamara) kept my water cold even in the Florida sun.
Fabric tote bag: While I didn’t buy a lot on my trip (two t-shirts and a postcard, I think), I wanted to make sure I didn’t have to take a plastic bag at the store. (No one batted an eye in WDW, but outside of Disney, cashiers were really shocked when I kept refusing a bag for things like food and one even tried to force me to take one because he’s already put my crisps in the bag.)
Period pants/ reusable menstrual pads: While this didn’t entirely cut my need for tampons – I couldn’t wear these at water parks and I didn’t have the luxury of changing my pants/pads during the day, as I do at home – it really helped me cut down on the disposable pads that I would have worn in the parks to avoid an accident while in a two-hour line.
Lunch box: I took this to carry in snacks to avoid buying something with packaging in the parks, but also to take back food that would be wasted at the end of a meal.
Bamboo straw: Given that I was generally drinking water, I didn’t have much of a chance to use this. However, it did save me from taking a straw when we sat down at a table service restaurant and I ordered a soda.
Spork with knife edge: I used this so that I wouldn’t have to take disposable cutlery. Then, I washed it every night at our hotel. (My parents didn’t bring one, but they did reuse the cutlery that they got on our first day for the rest of our trip.)
Cloth napkin: I took a few of these so that I wouldn’t have to use paper napkins. Each one lasted about three days, before being put in the washing pile.

Transport

While in Orlando, I travelled on the hotel shuttle and WDW transportation (buses, monorails, boats) with dozens of other people, so it was just like using public transportation back here.

We took a taxi to and from the airport, but I did try to get a shuttle. It was just too full by the time we got there and couldn’t accommodate my mum’s wheelchair and the next one wasn’t for like an hour. Not great when you’ve been up for 16 hours already.

Hotel

I will admit that this was probably my greatest green failure. (It kind of wasn’t even my fault, but it was really annoying.) I didn’t choose the hotel for its eco standards, but rather price and proximity to WDW, but I figured all hotels must have the same basic guidelines of not changing your bed linen every night, having recycle bins, and not changing towels that were hung up on the rack.

When we got there I realised there were no recycling bins but figured that it was okay because we could recycle stuff like the milk bottles in WDW. (We just had cereal in our room each morning, which was more eco than eating in the park or at the buffet.) However, their coffee cups were the disposable kind, which is annoying because I was expecting a china cup.

Still, I left a note for the housekeeper (with a tip!) asking them to leave the cups, as we would rinse and reuse, and to not empty the bins unless they were full. If all, I’ve put in the bin is the flight tag from my suitcase, it doesn’t need changing. When we got back, the housekeeper had taken the note (and the tip!), but completely ignored my request by replacing the cups and emptying the bins. They also, despite the eco-guidelines that were in the hotel welcome folder, changed towels that I’d hung on the rack. I had a little bit of a freakout that my mum found funny.

We worked around it by hiding the cups in the microwave and putting all our rubbish in one bin, as opposed to using the kitchen and bathroom one, but I couldn’t do anything about the towels. It still annoys me.

Food

https://www.instagram.com/p/BypbeVjgU0b/

As we all know, one of the best ways to lower your eco-impact is through being careful with what you eat. Eating locally, choosing the option with low or no packaging, and eating fewer animal products all help to lower our carbon footprint.

Now, I ate vegan about half the time and vegetarian for the rest of the time. There are a lot more options than you might initially suspect, especially if you seek out the sites I’ve linked for help.

As for packaging free, that’s difficult in Disney. Cast members aren’t allowed to take things like bottles or boxes from guests so they can’t place your vegan burger into your lunch box or fill up your bottle with soda. There are ways to limit your packaging though, including:

taking your own non-packaged snacks in
taking reusable cutlery, straws, bottles, napkins, and boxes (for leftovers)
opting for your ice cream in a cone rather than a cup
dining at table service restaurants (be warned, this does take longer and will eat into your park day, which is why we only did it once)

You might think it’s hard to eat local in WDW, but it’s easier than you think. See WDW grows a lot of its produce on property and the Living with the Land ride at Epcot shows you how they’re always looking for new ways to grow food using less water, less soil, and utilising permaculture.

Shopping

As mentioned above, I didn’t really buy anything when I was in WDW. A couple of tops for me, but nothing for anyone else. Not even my nephews and niece. (Sorry kids!) Also, on a related note, I will sound like the sourest person in the world, but I’ve never understood why adults buy other adults gifts from their holiday.

By limiting what I bought, I reduced the amount of packaging to just a couple of price tags and limited the amount (in a very small way) that Disney would have to replenish with brand new items largely made from virgin materials.

Well, that’s it from me on how to eco-hack your WDW holiday, but there will be a follow-up piece on how Disney is working to reduce its eco-impact. Now, I’d like to hear about any tips you have for making your WDW vacation greener. Let me know in the comments.

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